This invention relates generally to vane structures for air discharge openings of air conditioning systems, and more particularly, to an oscillating mechanism for sweeping the vanes through an angle of extreme positions.
Room air conditioners conventionally include an outdoor section and an indoor section. The indoor section includes an evaporator and a fan for circulating the indoor air from a return air opening, across the evaporator coil, and out the discharge opening. The return air opening is normally much larger than the air discharge opening and is covered with a fixed lattice type grille to allow the flow of air while preventing the ingestion of foreign materials into the return air opening. The relatively smaller air discharge opening is normally covered with adjustable louvers and/or vanes which can be adjusted to selectively direct the flow of the conditioned air being discharged therefrom.
A common design for room air conditioners is to provide a return air opening which extends across most of the width and the height of the inner face of the unit. The air discharge opening is often located thereabove and is much smaller in height than the return air opening but extends across the same width. This design allows for the discharge stream of conditioned air to be spread across the room in a wide layer for wide distribution.
Another type of room air conditioner is the so-called "side discharge" unit wherein, rather than placing the air discharge port above the air intake port, it is placed at the side thereof. The width of the air discharge port is then necessarily limited, and the wide distribution across the room is therefore diminished. Such an arrangement does provide for increased efficiencies and reduced turbulence with quieter operational characteristics, however.
In such a "side discharge" design, the use of louvers or vanes is made to more effectively direct the flow of the conditioned air from the air discharge opening. They may be aligned vertically to adjust the flow in the horizontal plane, or horizontally to adjust the flow in the vertical plane or a combination of the two. A further air distribution enhancement feature is that of providing vanes which are automatically moved in a continuous pattern to sweep the discharge air stream in an oscillating manner across the room. However, even with the "swept" type vanes, it is desirable to selectively stop the sweeping motion at a desired position such that the air flow stream remains in that position for a period of time. For example, it may be desirable to direct all of the air flow to one location within a room rather than distributing it across the entire room. In such case, with the conventional air sweep design, it has been necessary to wait until the sweeping mechanism arrives at the desired position and then turn off the sweeping mechanism. This approach not only requires the operator to wait while the mechanism oscillates to the desired position, but also often results in the sweeping mechanism "coasting" beyond the desired position after it has been turned off. Another problem with this approach is that, since the sweeping vanes are often located behind other louvers or a grille structure, it may be difficult to recognize the particular orientation of the sweeping vanes at any one time.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved air sweep mechanism for an air conditioning system.
Another object of the present invention is the provision in an air conditioning system for an air sweep mechanism which can be easily and efficiently set at a desired fixed orientation.
Yet another object of the present invention is the provision in an air sweep mechanism for setting the louvers for a desired fixed orientation without the necessity of waiting until the sweep mechanism arrives at that location.
Still another object of the present invention is the provision in an air sweep mechanism for visually observing the position at which the sweeping mechanism will stop and remain in a fixed orientation.
Another object of the present invention is the provision for an air sweep mechanism which is economical to manufacture and efficient and easy to use.
These objects and other features and advantages become more readily apparent upon reference to the following description when taken in conjunction with the appended drawings.